We barely make it

The lot of us are peering over the edge, looking down at the trolls, curious about what the next move is. I can smell their stench all the way here. It’s even worse than before I became an adventurer.

“Got any ideas, Merlara?” Leona asks.

“Most runes I’ve got target a single creature.” The dark knight answers. “The best I’ve got for large scale are [Crevice], [Mist] and [Freeze].”

“Well, I have a staff that can generate water.” Shalia says. “And Darx has that ring.”

“Hmm. Try first pushing the ground down a bit. That way the water will collect better.” Merlara says.

Shalia uses her magic on a group of trolls under the tower and makes it sink a few inches. Then I and her both use our artifacts to generate water and let it fall all over the trolls until they are ankle deep in the water. Of course, the trolls don’t like that very much and try to walk away. I decide to summon both my [Water Elemental] and also my new [Air Elemental]. I send them down and have them harass the trolls until they get pushed back into the pond we are creating for them. Once there was enough water to Merlara’s satisfaction, she cast [Freeze] and froze the trolls’ feet into the water. That is at least 6 of them that are stuck.

The trolls howl and shake their clubs at us angrily, but as long as we are up here, there is nothing they can do. Then some trolls start banging their clubs against the tower. They do it with enough **** that I can feel the vibrations in my feet. But what’s most important is that they are succeeding at getting clumps of dirt to fall off. I guess there were no rocks in the ground for Shalia to use, so she basically made a pillar of soil for us to stand on. This is not good. If they keep it up, it’ll only be a matter of time until this tower falls.

“Merlara, what do we do?” Ryul asks.

Merlara tells me to keep using my summons and wound as many trolls as possible. Preferably their legs. That is easy for her to say, though. These trolls have pretty touch skin for water or air to cut. It would be so much easier with metal.

I try crafting an [Ice Dagger] and pass it on to Ari, who then throws it to one of the trolls. It manages to get stuck in its shoulder but doesn’t seem to do much harm other than that.

Suddenly, a large part of soil breaks off the tower, taking away a part of the platform we are standing on.

“Be ready to make a ramp for us to walk down from.” Merlara tells Shalia. “Use the loose earth the trolls broke off from the tower. Everybody else, get ready for melee.”

Everybody prepares their weapons and I too cast an [Ice Sword]. It is time for us to show what we are made of.

Merlara waits giving Shalia the sign until there is almost no place left to stand. All for the purpose of letting the trolls tire themselves out as much as possible. When she does, Shalia adjusts the soil under us into the shape of a ramp and we all start running downhill. I throw a [Water Spear] at some troll on the way down. Amelia, who follows me closely, casts a [Ray of Light] at another. Meanwhile, Merlara waves her hand a few times, causing some trolls to start puking as she casts [Nausea] on them.

When we get to ground level, Merlara quickly casts [Crevice] to our left, creating a small gap between us and the trolls on our left. Then she commands Shalia to cast a [Stone Wall] on our side of the crevice. That’s not too bad. Now we have to deal with only 20 trolls until the others manage to run around.

We turn to our left, away from the wall Shalia just created and hear Merlara yell “Don’t stand your ground! Keep moving!”

The elementals, having seen we came down the tower, returned to me and I instructed them to distract the two trolls closest to us. While they are distracted, I move close to one and slash its leg with my swords. Each of the swords makes a deep cut in the troll’s leg, making it scream out in pain. Leona saw her opportunity as well and does the same to the other troll.

When a third troll gets close to Merlara, she uses [Ignite] on the club he is wielding, causing it to burst into fire and making him drop it. Then Merlara gives the troll a nasty cut in his leg and moves on, just like the rest of us.

Ryul has a harder time. He doesn’t have any skills with which to distract the trolls. He does have his [Heaven’s Stance] with which he can feel when and how the troll will attack him and dodge. Then he delivers a few punches to the troll and with his [Mantra] active, those hit pretty hard.

Ari manages to distract the fifth and sixth troll by activating her [Bunshin] and splits into 5 versions of herself and start to run around the trolls. As the two are distracted, one of her copies cuts a troll in the achilles heel, then disappears in a puff of smoke. The same goes for a 2nd and 3rd copy of Ari, which both cut the troll’s achilles heels. The fourth one stabs one of the trolls in his eye before disappearing. And the last Ari jumps away from them to remain safe.

Wendy dodges between the seventh troll’s legs and stabs at his legs with her spear. She manages to pierce his skin and get him in the muscles, but her skills are better suited against human sized combatants.

We started off pretty well and dodge between the trolls, leaving several of them on the ground, unable to chase us because of their wounded legs. But we are also quickly running out of energy. We start taking hits from the large clubs and Sophie and amelia need to spend a lot of mana to heal us. Worst of all, the trolls that were kept at bay due to the Wall Shalia created are about to catch up with us. I aim my ring at them and summon some more water, to immediately cast a [Mist] spell on it. That way their view of us will get obscured.

“Darx, don’t!” Merlara commands me.

“If I do this, they won’t be able to see us.” I tell her.

“If the mist gets blown our way, we won’t see them.” Merlara responds.

Crap, that’s right. One wrong move and the mist can turn against us. I quickly stop casting it, but Ari takes the opportunity to jump straight into the mist. As I remember my training with her, I recall she has a skill called [Zero Shadow]. It is a skill that allows her to see through any fog-like substance, be it smoke or mist. I hear a for troll screams from inside the mist, then Ari comes running back out unscathed. But even when she rejoins us, I can hear her breathing heavily.

“I can’t wait anymore! I have to use this now!” Ryul yells as the battle heats up.

He charges at a troll, using [Deadly Rush] and punches it. Except this time, his punch is so devastating it creates a shockwave and dislocates the troll’s knee. While traveling in the wagon, Ryul and the rest reminded us of some artifacts they found in an adventure in some cave a while back. Leona has a shield that pulls projectiles away from us and to her shield. Shalia found a gem that produces water like my ring and crafted it into a staff. Merlara has a bracelet that lets her cheat **** once per day. And Ryul has a pair of gauntlets, each of which can generate 3 shockwaves when punching. It looks like he just used up 1, and it was damn effective.

But while Ryul attacks the trolls in front of us, the trolls behind us close in and get withing reach, putting Amelia and Sophie in great danger. Leona rushes in to defend them, and manages to cut one of the ogre’s wrists. She uses [Sunlight Charge] to blind a second troll, after which she stabs a troll in his belly. A third troll manages to club her, but Leona activates [Sentinel] just in time to keep her body safe from harm. However, the blow still tosses her away, leaving Amelia and Sophie open as another 5 trolls are approaching.

I rush towards Amelia while also reaching with my thumb under my pauldron, where I keep my runes hidden. All three of them were charged a couple days ago, they should still be active. I place my thumb on the [Enfeeble] rune and cast the spell on one troll. The creature becomes weak and bends a knee as he prevents himself from falling. Perfect for me, as I slash my sword at his head and cut his eyes.

When another troll approaches, I reach under my pauldron again. This time activating the [Migraine] rune. I cast it, causing the troll to drop his club and reach for his head in pain. Then I use [Dual Strike] and cut him 4 times.

When a third troll approaches, I use the third rune, [Sunlight Charge], and shine a bright light into his eyes. This gives me the chance I need to summon a [Water Spear] and throw it at his head.

Last time, I couldn’t save Amelia from one troll. But now I am saving her from several. I can do this.

In the meantime, Ryul stays by Shalia’s side and uses more charges of his gauntlets, but it’s not enough. They just keep on coming. Merlara has her hands full fighting 3 trolls at once and Ari performs [Kassatsu] another troll to slash him with an 8-hit combo because he was threatening Sophie.

When there is a momentary lull in the combat, I look around and to my horror, I notice the trolls have surrounded us. There is no more getting out for us. We need to either defeat them, get rescued now, or we die.

“Shalia, can you create another tower?” I ask.

“No more … mana.” Shalia says as she is gasping for breath.

I look over at our dark knight and ask, “Merlara. How are you holding up?”

She casts [Nausea] 2 more times and then says, “I am running low too.”

“Ari? Got any more daggers?”

Ari looks at me and shakes her head. I quickly cast two more [Ice Daggers] and toss them her way, because I no longer have enough mana for a third.

I look over at Ryul and see him holding his left arm. Looks like he’s been hurt and our casters are out of mana.

Amelia walks up behind me and places her hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Darx. I can’t protect you again. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t say that.” I tell Amelia. “We’re not done yet.”

An arrogant troll comes forth to attack me, but I dodge his attack and slash at his legs with both my swords. They manage to pierce his flesh, but don’t do enough damage. He jumps back and hugs his leg from the pain, then gets back up and prepared for another attack.

When a different troll goes for Sophie, Leona uses [Divine Chains] to stop him from progressing. But then another troll grabs her and lifts her up. Wendy charges the troll and stabs him hard in the leg, causing him to drop Leona. But the catgirl paladin lands badly and twists her ankle. The troll rages at Wendy and prepares to strike her, but is stopped when Ari throws the two [Ice Daggers] I last gave her. Dammit Kiara, what is taking you so long?

Another two trolls come for me. My elementals attack one of them and I attack the other, using my [Dual Strike] skill again. Suddenly, I hear a scream behind me. I turn around and see one of the trolls behind me has gotten past Ryul and Shalia and had captured Amelia. He is holding her up in his large hand. She tries her best to struggle out of his grip, but he doesn’t let her go as he slowly brings her to his open mouth.

So, after all this time, after all that I have gone through, suffered and accomplished. It’s going to end like this? I finally got together with Amelia, only to lose her in such a horrible way? What if I tap into that dark power I discovered in the last village? I can't, I lost control and started attacking my friends. Do I really have no other option? No wait, I have one summon left. I remember Kiara asking me not to use it, but I have ****. I raise my hand and summon the owl. A large purple essence emerges from me and flies up. It quickly takes the shape of an owl, with wings and talons. It flies towards the troll holding amelia and flies through it, like a ghost. The troll’s body immediately relaxes and all its limbs go numb. The hand with which he holds his club relaxes and lets it fall. The arm with which he holds amelia slumps down and lets her fall on the ground. His knees bend and he falls on the ground with a large thud. Is he dead?

The owl then flies through another 3 trolls and all of them fall down with the life sucked out of them. Amazing! I should start with that next time.

As the owl is taking care of the trolls, I rush over to Amelia and check on her. I quickly hug her and ask, “You’re safe now. How are you?”

“I hurt my hand when I fell.” Amelia says. Then she looks up at the owl and asks, “What is that summon? Why did you not say you had this?”

“Kiara said I had to be careful when summoning it.” I explain. “Something about it has her spooked, but I can’t figure out what.”

The owl keeps flying through trolls and draining the life out of them until he breaks through the encirclement. Then he turns around and flies a bit higher. He returns to the center and as he flies above us, he spreads his wings and then just floats there, like gravity has no effect on him. Suddenly, everybody around me starts screaming. Not just the trolls, but also my companions. Even Amelia starts screaming.

“It’s taking my mana!” Amelia yells. “It hurts! Tell it to stop!”

I stand up and yell at the owl, “Hey you! Just fly through the trolls!”

But the owl doesn’t listen. I look around for my other two elementals to come and help, but they are nowhere to be seen. Have they fled? The owl meanwhile continues hanging above while sucking mana from everyone, except me and Wendy. That’s it, if Wendy touches the owl, her skill will cancel it and it will disappear. But how will she get up there? If I use my water magic to push her up, her skill will cancel it. Air won’t work either.

“Shalia, launch the earth under Wendy to the Owl!” I command Shalia.

I don’t know how much mana Shalia has left, but she gets on one knee and casts her spell. The ground under Wendy starts to rise and pushes her all the way to the owl. Then Wendy reaches out with one hand and as soon as she touches the owl, it disappears. Unfortunately, Shalia runs out of mana and can no longer maintain her spell. The dirt under Wendy breaks apart and she screams in pain as she lands on the ground. I run over and see she is holding her leg.

“Fuck! My leg! I think it’s broken!” Wendy screams.

“You saved us, Wendy.” I tell her. “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it. Wait, shit. The trolls.”

I look around and see the trolls are still on the ground. They seem to be all ****. But most of my team has fallen **** as well. Either through exhaustion or the owl. Well, at least we finally have time to use some healing potions. I reach into my backpack and search for a healing potion. I really hope Wendy’s skill is not going to cancel its healing effect.

But as I am searching for the potion, I hear Merlara yell, “Darx! Stop him!”

I look up and see someone tying up Shalia. She is not resisting so I assume she is ****. Ryul, who is close to Shalia, is also not responsive. Merlara is too far away and too exhausted, Leona is wounded as well. I get up and ready my sword to save Shalia, but suddenly I feel a searing pain in my left leg. I scream out and look down to see an arrow has pierced my calf. I look over and see another guy, one with a bow. Fucking bastard just shot my leg.

Fortunately, Ari shows up from out of nowhere and uses her [Kassatsu] on the archer. But just as he goes down, a puff of smoke appears behind Ari and some guy comes out of it to stab her from behind. I use the last bit of my magic to cast [Water shield] on Ari and keep her safe. Then the guy tying up Shalia calls out to his friend. They leave their fallen ally behind and escape with Shalia. Those fucking bastards. Why did they take Shalia? And why am I so useless that I can’t save her?